His Burden is Light

" This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24 This is a particularly well-known verse, and it is usually taken to refer to the present day. That is, it is taken to mean, Whatever day it is, let us rejoice and be glad in it. If the day is especially pleasant and sunny then the congregation is more enthusiastic about reading this verse together! But is this really what it means? That whatever the day is like, God has made it and given us life in it, so we should show our thanks by rejoicing and being glad? There is truth to this interpretation, but if we look closer at the verse and its context we can see that God is really telling us something much, much more profound. Let us notice first that this verse follows immediately upon the passage about the stone the builders rejected. Jesus, after telling the parable of the tenants of the vineyard, in which they kill the lord's son in order to take the vineyard for thems...

One might add to the title Reptilians, Ghosts, Vampires, and every kind of "Mystery of the Unknown" such as the Pyramids, the Bermuda Triangle, Reincarnation, and so on. These tales have excited the imaginations of people for hundreds if not thousands of years, and the same power to fascinate continues today. These speculations can lead to a rabbit hole of obsession. But as Christians, should we allow ourselves to become investigators into these things? If we find ourselves interested in the stories of the Loch Ness Monster, for example, should we search out the lore and try to get to the bottom of the mystery? As Christians our first love should be for the truth so one could argue that in pursuing the lore concerning these stories one is only seeking the truth. We want to know what is really "out there". But that begs the question, where is the truth to be found? Out there? The prophets, apostles, the angel Gabriel, and even Jesus Christ Himself said that Go...

In the Philippines I have seen many examples of religious expression: writings on Jeepneys that say, TO GOD BE THE GLORY, A NATION NOT FORSAKEN, and even JESUS I BELIEVE IN YOU;  people say God bless you, and before deplaning after a domestic flight the attendant said to us, "Have a blessed day." Pictures intended to represent Jesus, Mary, and saints abound. On the one hand I am reminded of the apostle Paul in Athens, when he waited in the city and saw all the shrines and monuments to various gods that the people worshiped, and also one to THE UNKNOWN GOD. Paul said to the philosophers of that city, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you"  (Acts 17:23). On the other hand I am reminded again of Paul but speaking of his fellow Israelites, also religious but not knowing God's righteousness unto salvation because they have not received Jesus Christ (John 16:3).  "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according t...

This post is about the so-called War on Christmas and its apparent resolution in 2018. This is what has been said about it but I can only agree in the most limited sense, as hopefully the rest of this post will make clear. I live in Canada so my information about the States is second-hand but there's a saying here that when the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. I believe this saying is true and it is certainly true in this instance. My experience working a retail meat counter over the Christmas season in 2018 is that something has really changed. Whereas in past years people were hesitant to say Merry Christmas, this year everyone is saying it and with a certain relish: people are delighting in the freedom they feel to say something that after all is quite ordinary and traditional: Merry Christmas! Canada is a very PC (politically correct) country. People are very afraid to say anything that might be socially incorrect. Views that challenge the dominant public narrative are...

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."  John 15:10 Recently, I was thinking about the movie, The Big Lebowski , and how much I had enjoyed it. When it first came out, I was not yet born again and I smoked a lot of weed and had a tight-knit group of misfit friends like Lebowski so I found the movie to be both relatable and very funny. It also seemed somehow mysterious and profound. In part this is due to the main character habitually smoking marijuana, which of course encourages viewers to smoke it also and watch the movie in that state. Generally speaking, things seem more mysterious and profound when a person is stoned. As a C hristian, I still respect that it is well-made and I get that it is kind of anti-cool, which to many appears as cool. I am grieved that t he character of Jesus, a Latino bowler, is a pedophile. I understand that Jesus is a fairly common Latino name and t...

Christians often get asked questions like, "If God knew Adam and Eve would eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why did He put it in the Garden of Eden in the first place?" Or, "Why did God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden and then Command Adam and Eve not to eat of it?" I would begin to answer this question as follows. A child is happy in the care of his parents. The child is content even if Dad loses his job and the family has to live in a car or a temporary shelter. That was an evil event that befell the family but the child simply trusts in his father and is sheltered from the experience of evil. The only time the child truly knows evil is if his father himself is taken away. Then the one in whom the child trusted and depended is gone and responsibility for his own needs falls upon the child himself. He now has the knowledge of good and evil. So really the first thing we must understand in answering this question is what...

Steven Fish was sitting in his wheelchair facing out the window of the M.C.C. at Southlake Regional Health Centre. He was tired from having done physio/rehab earlier that day but he had just been bathed and that was always refreshing. So while he waited for dinner he wheeled himself to the window and sat looking out at the trees by the creek and the city buildings all around and the distant people walking up and down the sidewalks. It was nearly winter and the skies were grey and it got dark early. Steven didn't have a lot to think about when it came to taking care of himself. His meals and clothes were provided to him at the hospital and his personal needs were also assisted. When he had to go somewhere else in the hospital, such as for physio/rehab, or when his social worker came to visit him, they came to him and took him where he needed to go. He did like to know when people were coming to see him however, so that he could look forward to it. Because Steven didn't have ...

I was challenged recently to justify Proverbs 6:6-8, which reads as follows: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." The challenge, as might be guessed, was not to the instruction of the verse but to the statement that the ant has "no guide, overseer, or ruler". Don't we know that ants have queens? Therefore is it not an error in the Bible to say that the ant has no ruler? Let's consider the verse itself first, and what it means to say that the ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler. The context is the work of the individual ant, and the verse is saying that insofar as this activity is concerned, the ant is independent and free rather than following a leader, being driven by a taskmaster, or obeying the command of a ruler. They are wise because they know the benefit of preparing now, when conditions are good, for...